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U.S. employers hired at a stellar pace last month, wages rose by the most in six years, and Americans responded by streaming into the job market to find work. The Labor Department said Friday that the economy gained a seasonally adjusted 257,000 jobs in January, and added far more in previous months than originally estimated. Businesses added 414,000 jobs in November, the government now says, the most in 17 years. Total job gains in December were also revised higher, to 329,000, up from 252,000. Average hourly wages, meanwhile, jumped 12 cents to $24.75, the biggest gain since September 2008. In the past year, hourly pay has increased 2.2 percent. The unemployment rate rose to 5.7...

Related "Consumer Confidence" Articles

U.S. employers hired at a stellar pace last month, wages rose by the most in six years, and Americans responded by streaming into the job market to find work.
The Labor Department said Friday that the economy gained a seasonally adjusted 257,000 jobs...

Homes sales appear to rebounding across the state and in Hampton Roads.
Realtors sold 22,968 homes during the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a recent report released by the Virginia Association of Realtors (VAR). That's a 2.3 percent increase...

As gas prices continue to descend to some of their lowest levels in more than five years, area consumers are beginning to loosen the strings on their purses, according to a recent federal report.
Strong to moderate job and wage growth in October and...

WILLIAMSBURG – U.S. Sen. Mark Warner made a nuanced, detailed and lengthy pitch to local Kiwanis members Wednesday, hitting his bipartisan bona fides hard as he asked voters to re-elect him.
Warner, a Democrat, described himself as "relentlessly...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are close to allowing consumers to buy a home with as little as a 3 percent down payment and still have the mortgages backed by the two agencies.
More details are expected to be announced in coming weeks, but the move from a...

When it comes to economic uncertainty, 2013 was the worst year for Hampton Roads, the director of Old Dominion University's economic forecasting team said after a Wednesday presentation in Newport News. This year should be better for both business and...

Family Dollar Stores Inc., seeking to reverse declining sales and profit, said on Thursday it is slashing prices to win shoppers, cutting jobs and shutting hundreds of stores. The retailer has more than 50 stores in Hampton Roads, according to an online...

I recently embarked on a price comparison project at six of the major grocery stores in Hampton Roads.
What I found was quite surprising: Prices have declined over the past year. (More on that to come in the Daily Press on Sunday, July 21).
In the...

The National Retail Federation released its holiday predictions Thursday morning, noting that holiday sales will be significantly impacted by the actions of the federal government in the next 45 days.
“Our forecast is also somewhat hinging on Congress...

JAMES CITY — They moved to James City County from Connecticut one day four years ago in a vehicle caravan, Jeff and Susann Tierney followed by the couple's elderly parents.
The Tierneys had just retired. They wanted to move to the Williamsburg area,...

Kaitlin and Ernest Huizar have a 2-year-old son and a baby on the way.
It was time to buy a house, they said. The $8,000 tax credit for qualified first-time home buyers was the icing on the cake.
"We just did some research and realized that a...

The maximum contribution limits for your 401(k) and other retirement plans will stay the same next year, the IRS says.
The agency released a statement Thursday keeping the maximum contribution rate at $16,500 instead of lowering it, as some had feared....

Sales of Peninsula-area existing homes in January were down 7 percent from January 2009. That makes last month's sales volume of 181 homes the lowest since at least 1997, when the Real Estate Information Network started tracking the region's figures.
...

Samples of drywall imported from China contained higher concentrations of elemental sulfur than non-Chinese-made drywall, according to initial report released today by a federal interagency task force.
Reports of homes containing the wallboard have...

Barely a year after emerging from a savage recession comparable in its intensity to the Great Depression in the U.S., Greece's economy is shrinking again. The uncertainty generated by January's general election and the drama over extending Greece's...

Harsh winter weather left U.S. consumers feeling a bit less confident this month, the University of Michigan says. But confidence levels still remain at the highest level in eight years. The University of Michigan says its index of consumer sentiment slid...

Your daily look at news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today. JUDGE: TAXPAYERS SHOULD PAY FORMER SPEAKER'S LEGAL BILLS A Florida judge says taxpayers should pay the legal fees of disgraced former House Speaker Ray Sansom....

Japanese factories churned out more machinery and electronic devices in January as export shipments rose, but lower energy costs due to cheaper crude oil failed to provide a boost to consumer spending. Weak retail sales and a cooling of already slow...